The lesson was on crafting of learning goals for a unit on “Singapore in the International System”. The unit’s learning goals were divided into two levels: Understanding Goals and Learning Goals for knowledge and skills. The underlying belief is the need for clarity of learning goals and for learning goals to be owned by students themselves.

Students will be able to deconstruct the literal and actual meaning of selected proverbs

Students will be able to transfer the meanings of selected proverbs in their end-products

Lesson Overview:

This lesson is on learning Peribahasa Melayu/Malay Proverbs. In respective groupings, students are given list of proverbs to deconstruct the literal meaning (extrinsic meaning) and the actual meaning (intrinsic meaning). Kriteria Cemerlang/Success Criteria (Definition, Situation, and Rational) are demonstrated to students as guidelines for them to deconstruct the meanings (both extrinsic and intrinsic) of the listed proverbs.

In the same respective groupings, students are to present an end-product of their own interest (choices of comic strips/acting/animation) to reflect the meanings (both literal and actual) of one or two selected proverb(s). (more…)

What exactly is a discussion? And why should it play a part in our classrooms? Simple questions that sometimes elicit responses that tend to put it down to something of an anomaly in our classroom experiences.

“Discussions? Nah, we are not like the humanities…it is not that simple in our field”, as if it was not a major slap in the face that certain disciplines rank higher because of perceived difficulty levels.

“It is just talk right? Anyone can do that right?” goes another. Another teacher of many years said when told of the response, “Yes, we just need to get some feedback from students, hence discussions are useful”.

I grimace in agony.

It is easy to put down discussion as just another technique, a strategy to bring in student engagement. Or worse, to fill time in a lesson. And to make matters worse, students feel the same way. “Why discuss? Let’s just get to the point”. Or, “Yes we will discuss, but we know that he will always summarise the key points for us and we are just waiting for the answers”. (more…)